On being a "tech guy"

As I'm sure many of you who are reading this can relate, being in the "technology business" I often get asked numerous questions from friends, family and even strangers about many things, one question I hear often is "How do I know I'm getting a fair price?". One problem with buying High Tech Items is that there is usually a high price attached. The reason being simple supply and demand, often demand is high for the newest gadets, widgits and what have you :)
The good news is that because of the internet, supply and demand has met more of an equal playing field. It is becuase of this question that I have started a new web project. The Technology Store. I will be posting the best deals I can find on the net on this site, and hopefully helping a few people in the process. If you would like help with a particulur object that has caught your attention, feel free to comment to this post, and I will help you the best I can.

Ram UpGrades Made Easy

Hello There... I wanted to write about a tool I have found recently that helps with PC Upgrades. The Tool Scans your computer to get your settings such as video card type, Ram type, amount of available slots, and maxiumum memory that your hardrive can hold. This handy tool makes upgrades to your system easy because normally, if you don't know the finer settings and configurations of your computer (such as weather or not your RAM is DDR or SDRAM) it can be very difficult to upgrade with any amount of confidence. You can use this tool by clicking on the link below, and then following the linked picture of RAM at the top of the page.

RAM and Video Card Upgrades

How to set margins in Adobe GoLive CS2

Well, posted another tutorial at Technology Tutorials. This one, its purpose is to teach those new to GoLive CS2 how to set margins in Adobe GoLive CS2. The pupose of setting margins is to make your page appear off from the browser, rather than connected to it. An easy thing to do in straight HTML and even easier with Adobe GoLive CS2. You can view the new tutorial here:
How to set margins in Adobe GoLive CS2

Web Rollover Effect

Hello everyone, I just wanted to tell you Adobe GoLive CS2 Users about a new Tutorial I have posted at Technology Tutorials.org. This tutorial shows the GoLive CS2 user how to create a image rollover effect. This is where you point your mouse over a image, and another image appears. Used all over the web. Learn how to do it here:
Image Rollover Effect

Q & A:Does anyone know when the next major trawl of domains is due to take place by Google?

Q: Does anyone know when the next major trawl of domains is due to take place by Google?I think its at some point in the next couple of weeks.

A: I have a feeling its going to be soon to, maybe by the end of feb, lately its been seeming about every four months, and the last one was in october.
* UPDATE - Google has announced a major update that will affect the ranking of web pages in Google's index. In contrast to the usual algorithm updates, this update will be much bigger because it changes the way Google works behind the scenes. Google has given the update the name "Bigdaddy". Some Google data centers that use the new Bigdaddy system are already online. For example, if you go to 66.249.93.104 you can test Google's new data center. The update is scheduled to be compleated by early march

Q & A: Optimizing web banners

Q: Optimizing web banners
Hi there,I'm new at designing web banners. Which is a better media - Flash or gif? Could anyone provide some suggestions on keeping the file size down? Any online tutorials you can recommend for designing web banners? Thanks in advance!

A: It depends on weather or not you want it animated. Flash will look much better for animation than gif. Choose .gif or .jpeg if you just want a picture of sort. I wouldn't worry about the search spiders seeing the flash, just as long as you have some quality content it can read as well. One thing i would suggest is to just see for yourself. Build your banner in flash, and then export it as a .swf and as a .gif (just change the file type when exporting)

Q & A:HELP...Google hates me!

Q: low and behold, my websites not being indexed on google.had it up and running for roughly 5 monthes, made a sitemap and submited that two months ago. The peculiar thing is that when i try: site: (edited for privacy)
my very very old page links are shown,google isnt updating its index, even though googlebot regularly visits my site.do i need a robots.txt file?heres my meta tags:(edited for privacy)
also should i remove all of my alt tags?is it possible that google has banned me?

A: Google is just slow.....it took over 6 months for them to correct their index of my site when i re-designed. as for weather or not you have been banned, who's to say, but i guess not, cause my google toolbar says your page rank is 2 (if you had been banned it would not show a page rank). If you want google to speed up, you have to get more backlinks. Preferably from sites with similar content, and high page ranks. its hard to get google to continually re-index your site (even with a google sitemap) and although you tell google to re-visit in 5 days, it won't unless your page rank is higher. also DON"T REMOVE YOUR ALT TAGS!!!! although it has been questioned how much alt tags mean to google many other search engines still depend on alt tags to properly index your site. Just be sure that they are not to long, and contain keyowrds no more than once (more than once or twice, or having extremely long alt tags may just get you banned cause the google bot will think your spamming it) My suggestion is to try and read up on SEO as much as you can, one site I like is http://www.seochat.com/ but there are tons of sites around, also, don't worry so much about google, they will make you nuts! Try and find other ways of promoting your site.

Q & A: Keywords in page names

Q: I am currently at odds with a peer, who is telling me that page names are not as relevant as i believe them to be. in other words, when referring to a web site for a local pet shop, i would prefer specific names such as:
reptile_supplies.aspx
live_reptile_food.aspx
tropical_fish.aspxrather
than template names (with relevant title tags) such as:full_image.aspxhalf_image.aspx
two_column.aspx
please share your thoughts, and any references on this topic would be very much appreciated.

A: It is not as important as other factors...but yes, it is important for overall success. The best way for your site to be indexed with relative keywords is to include these keywords every where you can (without over doing it) You don't want to "SPAM" the search spider, you just want to honestly put these keywords on your page, in your page title, in your meta keywords, in your alt image, in your link titles, and in your links. There are also many other considerations to follow when optimizing your site.

Q & A: Hey everyone, im new here and hoping I can get some help. I need to know how to link html pages inside of tables, without the use of frames. I

Q: Hey everyone, im new here and hoping I can get some help. I need to know how to link html pages inside of tables, without the use of frames. I see alot of sites doing this so that they dont have to edit 150 pages, just to change the "menu" perhaps. If someone knows how this can be accomplished please post, thank you. If you need to know the way I have my html table layout I can post it. Thanks!

A: There are many ways to do this...not many that are relatively easy to explain. One way that is fairly easy is with the use of Adobe Golive CS2 (I'm not sure if its available in other html editors) Golive uses a device called a component, which you can add to your pages, and everytime you update the component, the pages are automatically updated. If you use golive, I'd be more than happy to show you how to do it. Other options would be through the use of some sort of serverside script or through frames(which I hate as well) perhaps it may also be possible with some javascript, though that would probaly be as appealing as frames...Anyone else have any ideas?
*Update - I Have created a Tutorial that shows how to do this very thing.
Adobe GoLive CS2 Component Tutorial

Q & A: What should I use to create my web site?

Q: I want to create my own internet magazine. I learnt HTML many moons ago, but it seems pretty limited and outdated.Can someone please post on here the key things that owuld be useful for a magazine. I have web/text editors. WOuld something like php do the job?Just some key starter points would be useful. I can research the rest myself.

A: Flash and HTML....use HTML for all of the text so that search engines can find you, use flash to make the site dynamic and interactive.

Q: Linking to URL's in Flash

Q: Hi,I have been having the hardest time with this flash menu:
The menu is the way I want it to look but I want each button to link to another page (I am using Macromedia Flash 8). I am really, really, really bad on this program and will need very specific directions on how to make this work. I am willing to pay somebody 10 dollars through paypal if you can get this to work. If you have any questions feel free to email me at(editied for privacy) Thanks for your help in advance.

A: keep your money....go into your flash doc. (.fla) in the main menu (stage) go to the tab at the bottom that says actions (PC) or window / toolbars/ actions (mac) that will open your action script menu. Now that you have that down, click on the button on the stage you wish to make your link to(make sure your on the first keyframe on which the button appears). with the button selected (make sure only the button is selected, not all the buttons, just one at a time) type this into your action script menuon (release) {getURL("http://www.thesiteyouwishtolinkto.com");}then repeat that process for each button. thats it...let me know if you need more help

Q & A : Why does my web site show up too big on some computers?

Q: On some computers, my websites that are designed and made in Frontpage show up too big for internet explorer. It always cuts bits off and not all links are in view. I have put the links inside a text box, and used new times roman or arial which should be standard on most computers.

A: Your webpage will look different on different computers because of the native resolution of the monitor attached. If you design your page on a 1280 x 1024 resolution, and someone views it on a 800 x 600 monitor, your page will be huge. What you have to do is pick a minimum resolution to design for (such as 800 x 600) or learn how to create "liquid pages" through the use of CSS.

Q & A : heya i am new and currently on a webdesign course for college i am having to wright an essay on web designers opinions on the use of flash ani

Q: heya i am new and currently on a webdesign course for college i am having to wright an essay on web designers opinions on the use of flash aninamations and video in websites please could you help me on this?

A:Flash, in my opinion is best used to complement HTML. Flash can be easily found and indexed by spiders in this way. The problem people always run into with flash, is that it is designed to "show off" all of its features, rather than keep and maintain the interest of its viewers. This is best described by a friend of mine that recently designed an all flash page for his school portfolio. Every time he editied it, he would test the page to make sure it was edited correctly what he said was " I sure am getting pretty F%#*%ing tired of watching this animation over and over again" So what I am trying to say is yes flash is good, and in fact a very powerful and useful web design "asset"

Q & A "What are the advantages or disadvantages of putting up your page on "freebies" like AOL Hometown for example?"

Q: What are the advantages or disadvantages of putting up your page on "freebies" like AOL Hometown for example?

A:The advantage is that your hosting is free (minus cost of services such as aol, etc...) The disadvantages are that your site appears less professional, plus when you wish to finaly get your own doamin, you will have a problem passing your page rank, one way to conteract this is to keep the old (free)page, then get rid of all out-going links, and replace them with just one link going to your new domain name, inside of the link text have the major keywords you want to build page rank on. This will effectivly pass your pagerank from the free site to your new domain. Then, after your new site has been indexed, inform those sites that link to yours of the new address. no work wasted. although I would just suggest to buy the domain you want before someone else does.

Easy Web Site Updates using Components in Adobe GoLive CS2

Hey Everyone, I just wanted to let you know about a new tutorial I have created at TechnologyTutorials.org. One common question I hear as a web designer, is How can I update my pages easily? I don't want to edit 1000 pages just to add a new link to each? Isn't there an easier way? Well Yes, there is. It is called a Component, and it is part of the Adobe GoLive CS2 Package. Basically, with the use of components, you can create a HTML page containing just what you want to easily update (navagation, copyright info, etc...) and then, add these compnents to your pages. When you want to change it, just change the component, and Adobe GoLive CS2 will auto-update every page that contains that component. Some people who may read this might think this is like useing frames. Not So! The use of frames has it's place in HTML history, and useing frames can complicate things such as usability, and may not even be supported by some browsers. Components actually add the HTML to the page, and automatically re-work that HTML when just the component is updated. It doesn't take much to see what a wonderfull tool Adobe GoLive CS2 components really are. To Check out the tutorial follow the link below.
Adobe GoLive CS2 Component Tutorial

Hello

Hello folks, just created this blog. I will be adding more to it in the future, so check back often. Thats all for now. Later